Transplants: three operations use Maltese donors in Sicily

Following CRT, Ismett and Health Ministry accord

(ANSAmed) - PALERMO, JUNE 8 - Three transplants have been
perfomed in Palermo thanks to donors found in Malta. This is the
first result of collaboration agreement for donor sourcing and
transplantations signed in November last year between the
Regional Transplantation Centre, Ismett and the Maltese Health
Ministry.
Presented at the congress ''The new frontier in treating
terminal organ failure: integrated assistance from the local
area and the Transplantation Centre'' was organised as part of
the Mediterranean Healthcare Forum. The agreement will last four
as part of the protocol of understanding between the Maltese
Government and the National Transplantation Centre directed by
Alessandro Nanni Costa, as part of a collaboration initiative in
the training and patient-care sectors in the field of terminal
organ failure.

The Maltese donor was a 63-year-old man who died as the
result of cranial trauma. The right kidney was transplanted into
a 57-year-old woman at the Civic hospital and his left kidney
and liver were transplanted at Ismett into a 55-year-old and a
61-year-old respectively. Last night, news of a further donor
arrived from Valletta, alghough in this case the organs were
declared ''unacceptable'' as the cause of death of the
17-year-old female donor was not known.

As the coordinator of the transplant centre, Vito Sparacino,
explains: ''We signed an operational agreement with Malta by
which any potential Maltese organ donor, who is not used on the
island, is offered to our centre and managed by the Sicilian
centre in the same way as Sicilian donors. This is an important
step forward in the project to create a Mediterranean
transplantation area''. Palermo's Councillor for health affairs,
Massimo Russo, added: ''Sicily, which had been in bottom
position in Italy a few years ago, has not just attained and
overtaken the European average for donations of organs and
tissue, but is taking on a leading role among a crowded group of
countries in the Mediterranean are, leading the way in growth
and development of the transplant area. From this point of view,
the accord with Malta represents a very important step
forward''.

The Italian-Maltese understanding will allow for organs such
as lungs, hearts, liver and pancreas, which are not requested in
Malta, to be sent to the Sicilian centre as part of the National
Transplant Centre as the ''Italian Portal for Mediterranean
Countries'' qualified to receive organs from Malta.(ANSAmed).